California’s state parks system is getting larger, following a trio of new additions announced on Earth Day.
State officials said the three parks will be located in an area where these public spaces have long been few and far-between.
They are the Feather River Park near Olivehurst in Yuba County — the county’s first state park — the San Joaquin River Parkway in Fresno and Madera counties, and the Dust Bowl Camp near Bakersfield in Kern County.
The new additions have been called the largest expansion to the state parks system in decades, and are part of California’s State Parks Forward initiative. The program also aims to add 30,000 additional acres to existing state parks by the end of the decade.
The move also comes two years after California announced Dos Rios State Park near Modesto, the first addition to the system in a decade.
State Parks Director Armando Quintero spoke with Insight Host Vicki Gonzalez about these latest efforts to expand recreational and conservation efforts in the Central Valley.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
What is State Parks Forward, and why was it announced now?
It's a bold path that has been set by Governor Newsom and announced on Earth Day. Adding three new state parks is just the beginning of the efforts that we are doing, relative to increasing the size and the accessibility of parks across the state.
Given that California is already home to the most state parks in the country, some people might be wondering why we need more?
There's 280 state parks in California but if you look at a map, it looks like a necklace around the outer part of California. The Central Valley has very few parks, and really a focus for myself and for the administration has been to bring parks to where people are.
We're really trying to build on administration priorities which are Outdoors for All and 30x30, which is conserving more of the state up until we get to 30%.
Dos Rios was the first state park added in a decade, and now we have three more. What goes into the process of establishing and expanding these parks in California?
I'll just mention that the conservation partners across the state, nonprofits that purchase properties for the purposes of conserving those properties, would like to give them to State Parks and other land management agencies in the state. Well that process, it turns out, has been really expensive, a slow bureaucratic process.
What happened is that Governor Newsom signed two laws into effect… they help streamline no-or-low-cost acquisitions of properties next to existing parks that will help preserve and protect sensitive ecosystems and critical wildlife corridors. We've removed a burden of time and expense to really get these properties into the system. That's the opportunity that we're taking advantage of.
The three new parks are in Yuba, Fresno, Madera and Kern counties. How did you decide on these locations?
We have a team in our planning group at State Parks who has gone out and surveyed possibilities. Back in 2009 State Parks actually put together something called the Central Valley Vision, which scoped out this idea of looking at places where we have incredible recreational opportunities available for Californians.
What that mapped out, and it’s something that I had been interested [in] long before I came into this role, is that the Sacramento River and the San Joaquin River have these gorgeous big rivers coming out of the Sierra Nevada down to to meet [them.] The junction of those rivers is where we have big communities — Fresno, Modesto, Sacramento. Those are a perfect mix of recreational opportunities right next to big communities that don't have easy access to parks. It really fills a niche.
I will also say that what we have discovered with Dos Rios is that when we opened the park, a number of the attendees were teachers from the Modesto School District. There are school buses going to Dos Rios every week. These kids are learning about these incredible resources where they live. Not only is it a place for recreation but we need to understand how water works in California for our very future, and I think these parks provide an extraordinary real life classroom for people to connect to the places where they live that we depend on.
You’ve been passionate about making parks more accessible, and locating them where people already live. Tell us more about this prioritization.
The state park system was created because of local citizen activism. Basically the earliest parks were created through citizen activism. It's happened for some time; we're looking at the whole state, at who has recreational spaces available to their areas, and we're looking at state, federal and local opportunities.
And State Parks, by the way, we don't just build, take care [of] and manage state parks. Since 1968 the State Parks Department has directed billions of dollars to individual communities for the development of recreation centers, baseball fields and even open space. Just since 2010 we have invested a billion dollars in communities across California. So if you want to say 280 state parks — now 283 — we can add to that over 900 communities in California that have parks because of investments made by the legislature, and by bond choices that the citizens have made.
These parks are located along a diverse landscape. What kinds of amenities need to be added, and when will people be able to enjoy them?
There already is a website. That will outline the planning opportunities that we're going to be putting together with the community. All of the planning that we do in parks is done through public engagement. We set up meetings that are hybrid, so you can go to meetings in-person or go online and provide feedback.
What happens at those parks will depend on what the public says they want, and what kind of amenities that may include. That’s everything from trails to facilities, to activities. We are then able to go to the legislature and say, "phase one is going to be this." We'll ask for the funding and do the planning. So it'll take a few years, but that's the nature of parks.
If we look further south at the San Joaquin River Parkway and Dust Bowl Camp, why was this land selected?
Years ago, there was a group called the San Joaquin River Trust and they started conserving lands along the Parkway, along the river. Then the state created something called the San Joaquin River Conservancy. Those two groups have been working to conserve lands, but again setting them aside and conserving them is different than really managing them… in a way this has been a run-up to turn them over to State Parks or a similar agency.
San Joaquin River Parkway is right below Millerton Reservoir. which is a very popular state recreation area — it’s literally just down the hill. This is an extension of that park.
And then in Bakersfield, we're calling it Dust Bowl. It's a small two-acre site and it's a collection of historic buildings from the Dust Bowl era. These buildings were built to accommodate all these displaced families from the middle of America trying to get re-established in the agriculture world of California. This site actually was the inspiration for John Steinbeck in creating the novel Grapes of Wrath. So it's a cool area for stepping back in time and learning about the history of the state in which we live. And these other parks are also [a] reminder: this is where you live, in one of the most incredible river valleys of California.
You can listen to the full conversation, as well as hear from Yuba County Public Information Officer Rachel Abbott, here.
